Confirming the announcement in mid-February by the Portuguese President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, that relations with India will be at the heart of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council, the draft programme for the next trio of Presidencies (Germany, Portugal, Slovenia) announces that "an EU-India Leaders’ Meeting is scheduled to take place in Porto in May 2021 at the invitation of the President of the European Council and hosted by the Portuguese Presidency".
In 2000, the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council hosted the first ever EU/India Summit, while the last one, scheduled for 13 March, was postponed sine die due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The trio of Presidencies is also committed to working towards a possible relaunch of negotiations on an "ambitious" trade and investment protection agreement between the EU and India. This will not be easy: negotiations for a free trade agreement, launched in June 2007, were de facto halted in the summer of 2013 due to insufficient ambition, according to the Commission (see EUROPE 10931/30). At the last Summit in October 2017 (see EUROPE 11878/1), both sides pledged to recommit to actively re-launch negotiations for a comprehensive and mutually beneficial free trade agreement in due course.
In addition, the Commission presented a strategy for its relations with India in November 2018 (see EUROPE 12141/23).
See the draft programme for the trio: https://bit.ly/374h5AZ (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)